Whispers
by SweetlyMagnifique
Summary: Alice's waking mind is plagued by incessant whispers. However, in her dreams she's forced to face her memories and finally confront Bellatrix Lestrange.


_** Hiya everyone, this is my fic for the first round of the House Cup Competition. I've never written a Alice/Bellatrix fic before so hopefully it's okay. Enjoy and a huge thanks to EmpoweredBeing!**_

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter... unfortunately.

* * *

Not a sound could be heard within the bleached white wards of 's Hospital for magical maladies and injuries. The clinically sterile nothingness that coloured everything from the crisp bedding to the patients themselves now carried an orange tinge from the only light source in the soft glow of the many candles that were encased in levitating orbs bathed everything in a gentle, reassuring light.

Alice Longbottom lay on her bed, knees tucked up to her chest; comforting and protecting herself subconsciously. Her once bright eyes were now wide open and tired, and yet unseeing as she stared blankly at nothing in particular.

However, if one looked more closely at Alice, they would find that her hazel brown eyes weren't blank. Ghosts of emotion,too complex for her to experience streaked across the tired orbs. Wariness and just a hint of fear were among the many emotions conveyed in Alice's wide eyes as she waited for the invisible attacker that would drag her reluctantly into the hostile darkness of sleep.

Pale, thin fingers that had been tightly entangled in dull, straw like hair released in an attempt to hush the incessant and unrelenting whispers that plagued her waking mind as she finally left the hazy glow of the candles and drifted off into uncertainty.

* * *

Like a puppet, she was dropped into an empty space that was empty, silent, pitch seemed clearer, although she couldn't see anything past the end of her nose. It was as if, in her dreams, the veil that shrouded her coherent mind during her waking hours was lifted. She was free to think clearly, speak and remember, until she finally awoke and the incessant whispers filled her head again.

Alice took a deep breath. She rarely had pleasant dreams and everything that happened in them usually took her by surprise. Wanting to be ready for whatever was coming for her, she braced herself and waited.

_Constant vigilance._

The warning triggered tonight's session, which began with her being thrown violently backwards and slamming into an unyielding wall. She hung there for a moment, before sliding downwards and hitting the floor with a dull thud. Unseen ties snaked around her wrists, ankles, torso and neck; rooting her to the spot and forcing her to partake in whatever her damaged mind had in store.

After a few moments of relative peace, the ties started burning. The unexpected searing pain caused her to let out an involuntary shriek of surprise and anguish. She felt like she was being drained, both mentally and physically, as wisps of silvery grey left her invisible bonds and floated delicately into the space before her. When the tendrils of pain came into contact with certain points of the now more illuminated space, they caused the air to ripple like water, before the whole space changed into something that caused tears to sting Alice's eyes.

She was watching a family sitting on a patchwork quilt in a cosy, yellow and red living room with a large fireplace. The mother was holding the chubby, round faced baby on her lap while the father was lumbering around on his knees with his arms up, pretending to be a monster.

_"Watch out for the tickle monster, Neville, he's coming to get you." He said, smiling and creeping towards the baby who squealed and hid himself in his mother's chest._

_Neville's high pitched laughter rang out through the room as his father tickled him. Looking at the scene playing out before her was difficult for Alice, because she knew what was going to happen in a few short minutes._

_Neville continued to giggle happily even after Frank stopped tickling him, completely oblivious to the worried look he exchanged with Alice._

_"Someone's trying to get through the wards." Frank said worriedly. " They're strong, I can feel the wards getting weaker, we've probably only got a minute tops."_

_The Alice in the memory merely nodded._

_"They're probably here about that damn prophecy." Her hands were shaking slightly as she held, the now silent, Neville close to her kissing the top of his head. "We need to get Neville to safety_

_"Apparate to my mother's house, she'll keep you both safe. I need to send a Patronus to Dumbledore." he turned to his son, who was still looking up at him smiling innocently . "Neville, you're going to visit Granny Augusta for a little while, be good for Daddy, okay?" Neville just smiled at him and Frank patted his head, leaning in to press a kiss to his head. "Bye bye, Nev, see you later." He waved sadly as Alice immediately apparated away with Neville._

She watched herself pop away with her son and was almost in tears as she watched Frank send a request for backup to the Order. Looking away, she only heard his cry of surprise when she re-appeared next to him, no doubt looking determined as she declared that she'd never leave him to face anything like this alone. Alice was forced to look up, however, when she and Frank were sharing a kiss and her nightmare truly began.

The heavy oak door, was thrown off its hinges and the figure that haunted Alice's fractured mind entered the room, clad, almost glamorously in shimmering black and wearing a sadistic smirk on her face.

_Bellatrix Lestrange._

"Oh! I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she sneered and immediately whipped out her wand.

Alice felt like her head was being crushed in a vice as she lost her vision. She couldn't see anything but flashes of her beloved Frank, writhing on the floor and screaming in agony. Although she tried desperately to break free of her invisible bonds, she couldn't move and she couldn't see. The only thing she could do was scream and plead pitifully to try and stop something she knew she could never change.

She could hear everything in gruesome detail; Bellatrix's twisted laughter as she taunted and questioned him; Frank's ear-splitting screams and his deep, gasping breaths as his resistance wore thin. Moans and yelps as he was kicked and cracks that made her nauseous as his fingers were stretched too far back.

Then there was silence.

Alice was crying hysterically and didn't notice the reprieve until she heard a cold, emotionless voice address her.

"You could have stopped this." Frank's accusation cutting through the air like a knife.

Looking up, Alice saw her husband, but it wasn't the Frank she knew, and loved, this was an empty shell. A husk of the man he had once been, now totally emotionless; empty .

"I tried but-" she raised her arms pulling on her tethers, to show him the ties that kept her from being able to do anything to help.

To her horror, she found that they weren't there. They'd disappeared and upon realising that she was free to move, the intensity of her sobs increased dramatically.

"I c-couldn't, Frank. It h-h-happened years ago. This isn't real." Frank's expression remained totally blank.

"It's your fault, Alice. You should have tried harder."

The blunt way in which Frank spoke to her made Alice feel absolutely , in a deep part of her, she found that she actually believed what he was saying. It would have been better if he had been furious with her.

Out of nowhere Frank's unusually pale face started to get blotchy. Spots of yellowish green and purple appeared on his face and arms as well as deep cuts that bled freely. His fingers looked utterly terrible and Alice could see where each one had been broken individually. The physical effects of his torture were finally on show, causing Alice to feel sick to her stomach.

"And now, because of you, because you didn't do anything, Neville is going to suffer and it will be all your fault."

"F-Frank please-"

"Your pleas change nothing, our son will hurt for all his life, and thanks to you, there's nothing either of us can do about it." He fixed her with an icy glare and faded away into nothingness, leaving her alone in the dark. Again.

Immediately, the sound of twisted laughter caused her to turn around and face her tormentor. In a way, Bellatrix looked quite glamorous; her black, curly hair was in an elegant updo and her well fitting, black dress gave her such intimidating beauty.

Bellatrix stalked towards Alice, who was on her hands and knees, until she was standing directly in front of her. But, it wasn't the woman who caught Alice's attention, standing there, holding Bellatrix's hand and smiling happily was Neville.

She stretched out her arms, eager to hold her now two year old, to feel his perfect body, and his soft skin.

"Nev, baby, come here please. Come to mammy."

There was a nervous smile on her face as she reached for her son, trying to coax him away from the woman who would kill him, as she had done his father, without batting an eyelid. A lump formed in Alice's throat as she watched him tug on Bellatrix's long skirt and held his arms up; waiting to be picked up. It amazed her how a woman so evil, so sadistic could convince such a small child that it was safe in her company. Children had an intuition, a sixth sense about whether a person was good or evil and yet Bellatrix Lestrange; one of the most dangerous women in the wizarding world had managed to convince Alice's own son that he was safer with her, than in the arms of his mother.

Bellatrix looked almost motherly as she hoisted Neville up onto her hip and he rested his head against her shoulder. She brushed a strand of hair out of Neville's eyes and he sighed contently against her, as she addressed Alice.

"The Dark Lord wanted answers, Alice and neither you, nor your little husband, would give them to me." she tutted and pouted mockingly at Alice. "So, you're both going to have to pay the price."

"We've paid enough Bellatrix, and so has Neville. Frank and I are hardly capable of saying our own names and our son has grown up not knowing his parents. We've missed his whole life and that is the ultimate price for us to pay."

She had no idea where the strength had come from, but she knew she needed to keep it up, Bellatrix was going to make things painfully difficult for her during this encounter.

"That changes nothing. I obviously haven't done my job properly." She smirked." You seem to be perfectly sane now, and we can't have that, can we?" She raised her wand grinning sadistically and turned to the child in her arms.

"Say bye to mum precious,she's going now " Her sickly sweet voice sounded so unnatural.

Alice found, once more, that she couldn't move. No matter how hard she tried she could only watch her little boy, waving clumsily at her.

"Bye Mama."

Smiling reassuringly at Neville, she looked at Bellatrix with a venom so strong, she could almost feel it burning. "Give. Me. My. Son!"

Neville whimpered at the change of tone and started squirming. Bellatrix put him down next to her and holding his tiny hand.

"Feeling feisty, I see. I'd better put a stop to that." she let go of Neville's hand, bending to his level and looked him square in the face. "You're going to be just like Mum and Dad now, would you like that?"

The child nodded happily, unaware of the dangerously gentle tone of her voice. Alice, however started to shake panicking at the prospect of losing her son. Bellatrix couldn't possibly make Neville like herself and Frank. No one in their right mind could put a child, little more than a baby, through that. No one with a shred of human decency would ever torture a child. But, of course, Bellatrix Lestrange had no humanity.

"No, you can't do that. He's only a baby!"

"It changes nothing. The result will be the same, and he'll be pathetic just like his parents. This is all down to you." she sneered.

Alice was crying openly now, and it seemed that the harder she tried to stop, the more tears stained her cheeks. She saw Neville, through her tears, toddling unsteadily towards her, having seen her distress.

"Mam-"

He was cut off by Bellatrix shouting over him with her wand pointed directly at the back of his head. Alice was looking straight into Neville's eyes when the unthinkable happened.

"Crucio."

It was as if time had slowed down to prolong her torture. Neville's tiny face screwed up and a high pitched needle of sound penetrated her ears. She never wanted to hear the sound of her baby screaming in agony - screaming for her, ever again. His minute body convulsed and writhed on the floor, his tiny hands clutching his head in desperation while he screamed, pitifully, for help.

No matter how much Alice struggled to rush to Neville's aid, to try and make Bellatrix stop, she couldn't move a muscle. The invisible ropes that bound her tightened painfully every time she tried to break free. And as she turned to pull free, she found she was also being held down by the emotionless Frank who had tormented her earlier. All she could do was watch her little boy suffer because of her actions and scream and plead for Bellatrix to take her instead.

"Please! Please, just let him go!" she shrieked, still trying relentlessly to reach Neville.

"You're pathetic." Bellatrix laughed over the high pitched screams. "You, your husband and your brat. You're filthy blood traitors and you deserve everything you're getting and your offspring deserves worse. That's your fault, his fate is your fault and that will never change." She finally lowered her wand and Neville's screams subsided.

"M-M-Mama, hewp p-pwease." he begged,curled up on the floor in front of her. She literally felt her heart break in two as he reached a shaky little hand out to her.

"M-Mama..."

"So" Bellatrix's cold voice pierced the atmosphere. "Shall I make it stop?"

"I'd do anything, Bellatrix, anything, if you'd just let me take his place." She knew she deserved anything Bellatrix threw at her, because she'd failed the main duty of a mother, not once, but twice. Twice, she'd failed to protect her child.

"Alright," Bellatrix said gleefully, "I'll stop him suffering." She raised her wand once again. "Avada Kedavra!"

At that precise moment Neville fell silent,was free to move and she scrambled over to Neville, not even able to cry as she cradled his lifeless body in her arms.

"I'm so sorry, baby, Mammy should have tried harder to help you." She whispered,placing several kisses on the top of his head.

She was numb and didn't notice the second jet of green light that hit her before the veil over her mind was replaced and she started to fall, Neville's agonising screams echoing in her ears.

When she opened her eyes, everything was too bright and her head was cloudy once more. The whispers that plagued her had returned,but it was easier now to make out what they were saying. Normally, her hands would have flown to her head trying to block them out, but instead, her long, sharp nails found the flesh of her forearm and traced patterns over it subconsciously.

_"This is your fault, Alice. "_

Scratch.

_"You should have tried harder to save us."_

Scratch.

_"M-mama?"_

Scratch.

_A high pitched scream_

_"Please, he's just a child!"_

_"That changes nothing."_

Scratch.

_"You're pathetic."_

Scratch.

_"You're right"_

Scratch.

The whispers were always right. What happened to her family was entirely her fault. She wanted to confess to everyone, admit that she'd failed her son, but every time she tried to speak, every time she tried to scream, she just couldn't form the words.

That was her payment for staying silent.


End file.
